Race Report: 2023 Il Giro di San Francisco - Women's P/1/2/3

Race: 2023 Il Giro di San Francisco - Women's P/1/2/3

Date: September 4th, 2023

AVRT racers: Gina Yuan (4th/20), Sue Lin Holt (5th/20), Lora Maes, Chris Davis, Serenity Marshall (guest rider)

Course: L-shaped 6-corner course with a small bump. Pavement is bad on the backside stretch, and the second corner has tracks on the road.

Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/9785007541

Written By: Gina Yuan

Our plan going into the race was to set up Sue Lin for a sprint with her killer track legs, or for me to follow small late race moves. Lora and Chris competed in (and won!) their Master's Crit District championship categories earlier that day, and Serenity was guest riding with us the first time, and their roles would be to support and be more active especially in the first half of the race.

The pace was pretty fast in the first half, and there were no real lulls. Lora contributed to that as planned and I felt chill when I could see Lora and Sue Lin in good positions. I may have gotten a bit too complacent as I had fallen to the back of the group, and while I was waiting for the pace to slow down again before moving up, the move of the day went off the front.

Jamie (Monarch) had attacked with Ilan (Terun) and Jacqueline (ROXO). Chloe (Monarch) bridged up and attacked through them, going off solo for the rest of the race. I actually didn't see any of this in detail because I was still frantically trying to bridge. I was in no man's land with Kate (Terun) who wasn't particularly helpful since Ilan was up there.

I took a few pulls to try to catch Chloe. We're joined by people from behind and the other three in the break. After a few attempts, I dropped back to see what had become of the group. There were ~10 of us and none of my teammates. It was going to be a dsyfunctional chase. I thought about attacking the group but honestly I didn't have the kick in my legs after the initial chase effort. So it became a race for 2nd.

We catch a few lapped riders, including Lora ~5 laps to go! The officials tend not to pull dropped riders from these women's races, likely so people can have a chance to still race their race as long as they don't pose a significant safety risk. Kind of weird, but the rules are that lapped riders can re-join the field and even participate in race dynamics, just that they will be considered a lap down at the finish. Lora was doing pretty good as she had dropped back intentionally to rest and rejoin, so as the field was getting antsy, she took the front and kept a pace just fast enough to keep us in-line. I sat comfortably on her wheel without having to fight for position.

Then the swarm came with 2 laps to go. And woah there was Sue Lin! And a bunch of other people! Reunited teammates catching up after some time apart. The announcer did say something about the field being back together. But it just didn't cross my mind in the chaos. The field had actually become a mix of the two chase groups, lapped riders, and riders a lap down from dropped chains.

Face palm moment for not communicating more with Sue Lin. I was now focused on navigating the pack solo for the sprint, but I'm glad Sue Lin found her own way on my wheel for a lot of this journey. I think I generally pedaled up the side to the front when the group was spread out across the road, slotted in the front when the pace went up, and focused on keeping momentum if the pace fluctuated. Gwen started a leadout for Marcie (Revolution) on the backside of the course. The finishing stretch after the final corner was pretty long, so people burned out, and Sue Lin and I made up so many positions in the final lap! We finished 4th and 5th overall.